Ted Nugent Under Fire for Targeting Prominent Jews in Gun Control Debate

Outspoken rocker Ted Nugent has been an avid supporter of the right to bear arms and in speaking out on his beliefs over the years he has ruffled more than a few feathers. But a new posting on Nugent's Facebook page has earned a response from the Anti-Defamation League asking him to remove the post.

His posting, which we've chosen not to embed in this story, features the images of 12 political figures, along with images of a flag noting their Jewish heritage. "Who is really behind gun control?" reads the caption above the photo, while Nugent adds his own commentary which reads as follows:

Know these punks. They hate freedom, they hate good over evil, they would deny us the basic human right to self defense & to KEEP & BEAR ARMS while many of them have tax paid hired ARMED security! Know them well. Tell every1 you know how evil they are. Let us raise maximum hell to shut them down!

A few hours after the post went up, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement of their own in the comments section. It reads as follows:

This is nothing short of conspiratorial anti-Semitism. Regardless of one’s views on gun control, this kind of scapegoating of an entire religious group is completely unacceptable and completely divorced from reality. It should go without saying that anti-Semitism has no place in the gun control debate. You should be ashamed for promoting anti-Semitic content, and we hope that good people on both sides of the gun control debate will reject his tactics and his message. We hope you will have the good sense to remove this share immediately so that it does not spread virally across the internet.

Ted Nugent has a long history of being an equal opportunity offender. But his latest share on Facebook, making the outrageous suggestion that Jews are behind gun control, is nothing short of conspiratorial anti-Semitism. Regardless of one’s views on gun control, this kind of scapegoating of an entire religious group is completely unacceptable and completely divorced from reality.

It should go without saying that anti-Semitism has no place in the gun control debate. Nugent should be ashamed for promoting anti-Semitic content, and we hope that good people on both sides of the gun control debate will reject his tactics and his message. We hope that Nugent will have the good sense to remove this share immediately so that it does not spread virally across the internet.

Just last month, Nugent called out President Obama, calling him a "psychopathic, America-hating liar" after Obama teared up while making a speech on gun control and violence.